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Chewie's dad is incredibly creepy

Thanks to a good tip from Stomptown about a great Black Friday sale, I picked up this cool little chassis for $5 last month and I'm trying to decide what to put into it. It measures 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" x 2 1/8". I'm thinking a Murder One submini tube amp. It's probably monstrous for that but it has straight walls so I could build a cool head cab around it. Better ideas?

I've found the idea of the upcoming Star Wars trilogy to be a bit polarizing. I'm just going to say for the record that I'm still excited about this! This is how I was hoping Star Wars would look. Now let's hope they nail the story.

Yes, there is a lens flare. Sorry about that.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lucasfilm/starwarstheforceawakens/

I wish I could say this is mine. I've recently become friends with a cool guy who owns a ton of old gear from his gigging days in the '70's-'80's. He is in a position of needing to sell some of it off for cash and is having me get some of the non-working stuff back up and running. I was just finishing up getting his very cool Clavinet model C working when he brought this by.

It actually does work... part of the time. I'm not sure what's causing the intermittent not powering on, but it's somewhere after the transformer. I will probably recap it as a matter of course, but it really does sound good when it's running. I thought you all would enjoy a few pics.



















As a thank-you for the work I'm doing for him, he gave me an ADA 2FX. It's (I understand) an early '80's rack unit. It's all digital. It sounds OK. The chorus is pretty uninspiring and the delay has some nasty artifacts that I will need to try to troubleshoot, but the flanger is very cool!!! He is also going to give me the footswitch that goes with it. I will probably end up getting rid of it, but I may just keep it and put it in the rack with my Ibanez UE-400. It will depend if I can get the delay issue solved.

This looks like a fun way to prototype

http://kck.st/1jlr8Ar

I scored a Leslie model 45 to go with my M3!! I picked it up for $350 and everything is working and sounding great. The seller demo'd it for me with his A100. I won't be able to hear my organ through it until I build a connection kit and either buy a Leslie cable or build one out of power cord. But, I'm excited to have it and it will be a fun platform to mod.

The 45 could be bought with or without the Leslie amp. This one doesn't have the amp. They are also single speed, so your options are fast and off. I hope to ultimately add an amp and convert it to two speeds. In the meantime, I can hook it up and run it from the organ's onboard amp. Any mods I do to the Leslie will be documented over in my M3 mods thread in Misc DIY.

My son just showed me this. It is just incredible craftsmanship. All done by eye and by hand.

DOD FX747 Flanger. This isn't anything earth shattering, but I think these old DOD pedals are kind of neat. I got it in trade for a Weber Micromass that I no longer had use for.

It's a pretty good sounding little flanger with a wide range of sounds. The blend knob is pretty cool. It scores extra points for being USA built and having the battery door intact. It dates to early 1996 based on the fact that it only has the silly control names and not the actual control functions. (kind of annoying really)

The actual controls are: clean blend, rate, depth, regen

It turns out that pedals and the skill to build them make for a pretty good medium of exchange. What cool stuff have you gotten in exchange for pedals or pedal builds?

Here are the ones I can think of:

- Starting with my most recent, I built a triple pedal for a friend a few years ago. In exchange, he gave me a basket case USA built Fender Pro Junior. I was able to put it back together with the help of a schematic and gut shots I found online. I enjoyed that amp for a few years and then traded it a couple days ago for a 1956 Hammond M3 tonewheel organ.

- I just fixed a TS9 and got a cool little patch bay in return. The problem with the pedal? Opamp was fried. It was socketed so I just popped in a new one.

- Modded a wah for a friend a couple years ago and got a Marshall 1966a 212 cab. I hope to sell it soon to contribute to my Strat fund.

- I once built a tubescreamer for a friend who paid me and then gave me a set of '52 reissue tele pickups that I currently have loaded in my Squier Affinity. They sound wonderful.

- In addition to getting paid for a recent custom overdrive build, I was given a Presonus Comp16.

First of all, this is all Timbo's fault! He posted a while back about his Hammond M100 and that piqued my interest. I started doing some research online and decided that an M3 would be the perfect organ for me. I've been watching CL, waiting ever since.

Found a guy on CL selling one for $200 in perfect working order. Contacted him and ended up working a trade: my Fender Pro Jr for his 1956 M3. We both got a great deal!

The organ functions perfectly and sounds amazing! Now I just need to learn to play 

The M3 is commonly called the "Baby B3." Not only does it look like a mini B3, but it has the vibrato scanner and percussion. I plan to do the "foldback" mod to it so it has the upper harmonics all the way up the keyboard, just like a B3.

Now the hard (read expensive) part: getting a Leslie.

I like to store my components in those little parts drawer cabinets. I usually buy the cheap 40-drawer ones from harbor freight because... they're cheap! I label each drawer with the value of the parts in it and if I buy in-between values, I can just reshuffle the drawers. It's made building way faster and more enjoyable for me.

Anyway, I spotted these 9-drawer cabinets on sale at MCM for $3. It's not many drawers, but that's cheap!

Even though I was born in Canada, I've lived in Washington state my whole life and have never seen the aurora borealis except on TV. It looks like there's a reasonable chance to see them tonight. I'm so excited!

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2014/09/solar_activity_expected_to_pro.html

The Evel Genius now has an evil twin!

When I finished the first Evel Genius, I showed it to a buddy who immediately commissioned me to build one for him. So, here it is. Not much difference between this and the first one. Different DC jack and I moved the stomp down a little since I knew he wouldn't be using a battery with it.

This one fought me a little bit. I had a resin waterfall going down the side for a while, but I was able to babysit it until in firmed up and that edge came out perfect. Then the stomp gave me grief. There was some kind of oxidation or crud on the contacts making it impossible to get the solder to whet without overheating the lugs. I foolishly pressed on and wound up with a non-functioning switch. Thankfully, I was able to replace it with zero trauma to the wiring. The melted insulation in the pic is testament to how much heat I dumped into this thing. The switch in the pic is actually the bad one. The wiring with the new switch looks identical and the insulation didn't even suffer any further distress.

Enjoy.

It's going to feel silly bringing up the topic here, but I figure why not? We have a cooking thread and a whisky thread.

I've been into old-school mug, brush, double-edge safety razor shaving for about a year and a half now. Yesterday, my wife bought me some maca root shaving cream from bath and body works The Body Shop. Holy smokes, it's awesome! If you're into whipping up your own shave lather, give it a try. It's really nice. Before that, I had tried: Taylor of Old Bond Street, Colonel Conks, Proraso. This stuff is better than any of them.

If this post was just weird and didn't mean anything to anyone else, please disregard.

I'm getting tired of seeing PT2399 delays advertised as analog delays. I checked the MF stupid deal of the day and they had a Jet City "The Flood" 'analog' delay pedal listed for $50. I keep seeing this. Last time it was a Rogue brand pedal. I think it's more than misleading to unsuspecting guitarists. If I weren't into pedal building, I would be excited to get a genuine analog delay for such a low price. They even mention in the ad copy that it's a PT2399 chip.

I recently saw another delay pedal (I can't remember which now) that was billed as analog, but then a couple paragraphs into the ad mentioned that there was real analog circuitry in addition to the digital PT2399 chip. OF COURSE THERE WAS ANALOG CIRCUITRY!! This is just outright lying and many guitarists are being duped, not knowing that they couldn't even buy a true analog BBD chip for the cost of one of these pedals.

I have no problem with the PT2399 chip. I think it's great. I don't even have a problem selling a pedal with one in it as being "analog voiced." But I think it's highway robbery to sell them as "analog delays." MF and the other resellers who carry these know better!

I just spotted a mention for the Grind Customs Chimaera board listed in Tone Report Weekly. Check out page 25.

Way to go Rej!

1 - We genuinely want to get to know you and we would enjoy seeing what you've built!

2 - You can learn a ton by lurking, but you will learn even more by asking questions.

3 - The culture here is really affirming. Nobody is going to make you feel stupid. It's truly a unique community and we will probably learn from you too.

4 - Teacher says, "Every time a lurker posts, an angel gets its wings."

Do you own or GAS for gear that nobody else seems to understand or be interested in? Here are a few of mine:

Fender Pro Junior - I own an older, first generation version of this amp and it is just a fantastic little 15 watt combo. I know people like to replace the stock ceramic 10" speaker and mod them for a colder bias, but I love the way mine sounds stock. I can't believe more people aren't into these awesome little amps. I think they live in the shadow of the Blues Jr.


ISP Decimator - I know there's already a lot of love for these noise gates but I wish more of the guys I play with would get them. I love mine for completely taking care of my single coil hum without eating into the attack or decay of a note. It just works.


TC Nova Dynamics (NDY-1) - I was so sad when they discontinued these and so happy when I got mine for cheap on a MF closeout. This is such an amazing compressor. It has two discrete compression engines that can be run in series or can be split to two different parts of my signal chain, or to two different rigs for that matter. It has a very capable stomp box type compression, but what I love is the 3-band studio compression that's available. It has a dry blend feature but I pretty much never use it because the studio mode is so transparent. It works equally well for electric and acoustic. It has a gate mode too which can be tweaked to do a slow gear type thing. There's even a 10 segment LED meter so I can see how much my signal is being attenuated. It's just the perfect compressor.


Sonic Research Turbo Tuner (ST-200) - This tuner is so far and away better than anything else I've ever seen or used, I just can't believe everyone isn't using one. They are a little plain to look at, but the speed, accuracy, and usability are so good, I think everyone should have one. This is a true strobe tuner, not a sim. It's insanely accurate, and the price is about the same as a Boss. A few of my guitar playing buddys have been won over to it after borrowing mine.

Istomps are on the MF stupid deal again. 3 for $99 US. These will sell out quick!

I'm wanting to build a delay with long delay times that I can also control with tap tempo. Is it possible to incorporate tap tempo when two chips are involved? If so, how do I implement it? I'm thinking ZPDD when the boards are in. Where would I tie in? At the Q1/Q2 junction?